A Study on the Strategic Plans of the Metropolitan Municipalities: Case of Turkey**

The word strategy is the united form of Greek words “stratos” –meaning army- and “egy” – meaning managing, directing- (Akman, 2009 citing from Adair, 2004). And in the Turkish dictionary of Turkish Linguistic Society, it has been defined as the “route followed in order to reach a predetermined purpose”. About B.C. 500, Chinese Sun Tzu had given place to the concept of strategy in his book named "art of war", and Napoleon had used it to define the principles of war named “Strategies of Napoleon”. As a concept, it had been defined for the first time by German Von Clousawitz in 1815 as “the art of reaching the political purposes of the government through force” (Akman, 2009 citing from Liddell, 1991). Management scientists such as Steiner and Miner, Mintzberg and Argyris are among the ones first defining the concept of strategy. According to Mintzberg, strategy is the “process of taking the management mission further, determining purposes for the organization in the light of external and internal powers, determining special policies for the organization to reach its purposes andputting them into practice for succeeding the objectives and purposes of the organization” (Becerikli, 2000 citing from Kerin et al., 1990).

Strategic plans are prepared in order to define the prudential objectives, plans and visions of the institution for both public and private sectors, determine the undertaken mission, putting forth measurable objectives and revealing by the end of period at what extent these objectives are achieved. The concept of strategic planning has been defined in different manners in various resources. The definition of strategic plan and its references have been listed in the Table 1.

In the Public Finance Management and Control Law with no 5018, briefly it had been specified that it is required for the public administrations to compose their missions and visions relevant to the future within the frame of the basic principles they adopt, to determine strategic aims and measurable objectives, to measure their performances as per that, and to prepare strategic plan in order to perform the monitoring and assessment of such process. In this form, the law has determined the main frame and conceptual definition of strategic plan.

Strategic planning is result focused, and it is interested in the output rather than input. In strategic planning, the objective is determined, and this determined objective is the result to be reached, and strategic planning plans how it will be reached to such result. As strategic plan designs a future, it indicates that it is the planning of change.

In history, it is known that the first principles relevant to strategic planning have been developed by Henri Fayol in 1866. After Second World War, strategic planning has become a current issue especially for profit oriented enterprises. In 1920s, Harvard Business School has formed the Harvard Policy Model which has defined for the first time the strategic planning methodologies for private companies. According to that model, “strategy” is being defined as purposes and policies determining the company and its activities (Alan, 2010). The roots of strategic planning go back to long term planning studies which have started to be applied in enterprises after World War II. It has been given place to the concept of company planning in 1950s, and then it had been given place to the concept of strategic planning in military organizations and finally in public management (Asgin et al., 2006).

In 1960s, strategic planning has turned to a standard management model for all large and some small companies. In 1960, Ansoff has brought analytic approach to long term planning (Alan, 2010). But it is being accepted that the first study on this subject is “Structure and Strategy (1962)” which was written by Alfred Chandler. And the “Corporate Strategy” named book of Ansoff -which was published in 1965- are among the first works on this subject (Sayğılı, 2014). And the concept of strategic planning has taken part in management science after 1960s. The fast period of change and increasing competition environment have forced the organizations to take measures as per the developing conditions by considering such changes, and to increase their competitive power by taking advantage on others. This requirement has made strategic planning as an essential concept in respect of the organizations (Can, 1996). For public institutions, strategic planning is a newer implementation compared to private sector.

And the implementations of strategic planning have become a current issue for the first time in public by 1990s. In USA, strategic planning studies have started by the period of President Clinton in 1993 through a committee being under the management of vice president Al Gore. That committee had carried out its studies on 4 basics, and by bringing forward suggestions for each determined problem, the things required to be made had been revealed (Ünlü, 2007). Government Performance Results Act, which had been issued in 1993 in USA, had been obligatory to be implemented in public institutions (Akman, 2009; Kutlucan, 2009).

Strategic planning has come in the agenda of Turkish Public Management by signing of Programmatic Financial and Public Sector Adjustment Loan (PFPSAL-1) agreement which had been signed by World Bank on July 12, 2001 [1].

In the Immediate Action Plan announced by the government of the period on January 3, 2003, it had been specified that "it will be passed on to the implementation of strategic plan at institutional level". And then, in the Public Financial Management and Control Law with no 5018 –which had been published on the Official Gazette (OG) of 12.24.2003-, it had been included with the definition of “plan covering the mid and long term purposes of public administrations, their basic principles and policies, objectives and priorities, performance criteria, and the methods to be followed-up in order to reach them and the distribution of resources”, and its preparation in public institutions had been made obligatory.

In the Law for Metropolitan Municipalities of 07.10.2004 with no 5216, preparation of the strategic plan of Metropolitan Municipality (MM) by getting the opinions of county municipalities had been included among the duties of metropolitans, and management of the municipality in accordance with the strategic plan had been included among the duties of metropolitan mayor.

In the Law for Provincial Special Administration of 02.22.2005 with no 5302, “preparing the strategic plan and investment and operation programs”, “discussing and finalizing the activities of provincial special administration and the performance criteria of the personnel” had been included among the duties of provincial council, and “reviewing the strategic plan and annual work program, and budget and settlement, and presenting an opinion to the provincial assembly” had been included among the duties of provincial committee, and “managing the provincial special administration in accordance with the strategic plan”, “preparing development plan and programs, and strategic plan in accordance with the region’s plan –if exists- within six months as from the general election of local administrations” had been included among the duties of governor.

In the Municipal Law of 07.13.2005 with no 5393, “discussing and finalizing the activities of municipality and the performance criteria of the personnel” had been included among the duties of municipal council, and “reviewing the strategic plan and annual work program, and budget and settlement, and presenting an opinion to the municipal council” had been included among the duties of municipal committee, and “managing the municipality in accordance with the strategic plan” had been included among the duties of mayor. Under the “strategic plan and performance program” heading of referred law, it had been specified that it is obligatory for the mayor to prepare strategic plan within six months as from the general election of local administrations, and that it is not required in municipalities with a population below 50.000.

And on May 26, 2006, the “Regulation Regarding Procedures and Principles Relevant to Strategic Planning at Public Administrations” had been issued, and it had been a guide guiding and directing the public institutions that are required to plan strategic plan [2].

In accordance with the above referred laws and the decisions of Higher Planning Council, the first strategic plans had been prepared as pilot implementation at 8 public institutions in 2006 (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Turkish Statistical Institute, General Directorate for Borders and Coasts, General Directorate of Highways, Hacettepe University, Denizli Provincial Special Administration, General Directorate of Provincial Bank, Kayseri MM) (Altan et al., 2013).

It is one of the first models developed in the field of strategic planning. It is being referred with the names of Olsen and Eadie who had developed the model. This model basically consists of the following phases (Gözlükaya, 2007).

1)   Expression of mission and aims,

2)   Analysis of environment,

3)   In-house status and resource analysis,

4)   Formulation, selection and assessment of strategies,Implementation and control of strategic plan.

It had been developed by Brian B. Barry. Barry, in his book named “Strategic Planning Workbook for Non-Profit Institutions”, had developed the basic principles of strategic planning model. Some of the basic principles of the model developed by Barry may be listed as follows;

1)   Appointing the stakeholders and leaders,

2)   Reviewing the past and current status of the institution,

3)   Establishing the mission of the institution,Determining the possibilities and threats before the institution. (Gözlukaya, 2007)

This model, that had been developed by Nutt and Backoff, is very useful and beneficial for public organizations, and it consists of six phases. The first phase, which is “defining the historical position of the institution in the context of its frame, general structure and trends in its normative ideals”, is the most required and most important phase for the institutions (Gözlükaya, 2007).

Strategic planning model developed by Bryson suggests more options in respect of its implementation in public sector. According to Bryson, “the best strategic planning requires large scale information collection, determination of alternatives and emphasis on future implementations of the decisions made”. Strategic planning increases communication and participation, and it reconciles strategy values and benefits. Moreover, it improves successful implementation and regular decision making (Gözlükaya, 2007 citing from Hughes, 2003).

The legal infrastructure regarding preparation of strategic plan in municipalities had been established by the article 9 of Law with no 5018, article 7/a of Law with no 5216, and article 41 of Law with no 5393. Article 41 of Municipality Law of 07.13.2005 with no 5393 had imposed the obligation of preparing strategic plan by the municipalities whose population is over 50.000, and a period until July 13, 2006 had been granted to 205 municipalities meeting this condition for their preparations (Songür, 2008).

Majority of 206 municipalities and 81 provincial special administrations had completed their preparations in the specified period. As municipalities and provincial special administrations are obliged to prepare strategic plan within six months following the general election of local administrations, they had prepared strategic plan for the second time after the elections of March 29, 2009. A part of the plans had been updated, and a part of them had been renewed. As the implementation process of strategic management in Turkish public management is being assessed as a whole, strategic plan had been prepared nearly in all the public administrations, social security institutions, municipalities, provincial special administrations and Public Economic Enterprises which are within the scope of centralized management.

As no information had been provided on how the municipalities will pass on to the implementation of strategic plan, it had brought along some risks. As public administrations will pass on to implementation without having sufficient knowledge on the planning to which they don't know anything about, risks such as preparation of unqualified strategic plans, awarding the work of preparation of strategic plan completely to a company due to not having sufficient knowledge on the subject, or consultancy of incompetent companies in the strategic plan preparation process, and the risk of preparation of strategic planning by deeming it only as legal obligation are being listed as some of these (Yıldırım, 2011)

(Önem, 2012) suggests that the imposed obligation of strategic planning as dependant on population is not a correct approach that all the municipalities require strategic planning no matter what their population is, and that implementation field of strategic planning should cover all the municipalities.

Under today’s conditions, the contribution of strategic planning to the public and private institutions is indisputable. A municipality making strategic plan will have advantages such as planning as per its purposes and priorities, ability of planning the process, a participative planning, making decisions based on knowledge and analysis etc. In Table 2, the statuses of municipalities making and not making strategic planning have been provided comparatively.

Following the Law with no 5018, which obliges strategic planning in public institutions, 5 Laws, 1 Council of Ministers' decision, 2 Higher Planning Council decisions, 4 regulations and 2 communiqués arranging the strategic plan preparation principles and standards, defining the phases of preparation of plan and determining the liabilities of the institutions had been published. All legislation regarding strategic planning has been shown in Table 3 [3].

In this research, it was intended to reveal comparatively at what extent the 10 MM with highest population –among 30 MM in Turkey- include the issues of environment and urban in the strategic plans, what kind of activities they plan, and what is the amount of budget allocated to such issues.

The research is limited with the provinces of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Antalya, Adana, Konya, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa and Kocaeli which still have the status of metropolitan. When the researches on comparison of strategic plans were examined, 77 criteria were determined by Altan et al. (2013) based on Regulation Regarding Procedures and Principles of Strategic Planning at Public Administrations and Strategic Planning Guide for Public Administrations, and they were assessed as exists/doesn’t exist as grouping them under different headings. Karasu (2012) had applied attitudes questionnaire consisting of 41 questions under four headings to MM being within the scope of research. Çetin (2009) had performed a comparison based on 10 criteria, and Renkal (2012) had performed a comparison by the content analysis method regarding the missions, visions and strategic aims included in the strategic plans of 16 BB. And in the research, it was revealed comparatively at what extent the 10 MM with highest population –among 30 MM in Turkey- include the issues of environment and urban (“Kent” in Turkish) in the strategic plans, what kind of activities they plan, and what is the amount of budget allocated to such issues. Within the frame of content analysis, specific criteria and coding, by calculating the numeric amplitude of the concepts, the general terms of the subject was tried to be determined by making interpretation on the sample group in the direction of frequently emphasized words which is an analysis method by which the basic points required to be emphasized are determined (Renkal, 2012). The selected 10 MM constitutes %49.71 of the country’s population, and constitutes 64.21% of the population of 30 MM. It was accessed through the web site of Ministry of Development to the strategic plans of relevant MM [4].

The strategic plan of Istanbul MM was 288 pages, and the word urban and concepts derived from the root urban have been included for 238 times, and the word environment and concepts derived from the root environment have been included for 123 times. In section 4 of the plan – consisting of 8 main sections-, the subject of urban has been included under the heading of Urban and Social Order. When Urban and Social Order is referred, it is being understood to arrange the shared spaces, preserving the rights of consumers, inspections and awareness raising activities in these fields is being understood for enabling welfare and peace in Istanbul. In this section, 14 legislations concerning Istanbul have been included, and SWOT analysis has been made. In the vision section of strategic plan, the comprehension of “local management of brand city which facilitates life by sustainable and innovative solutions, and which generates global value in the name of urbanism and civilization” has been included. In the section of strategic aims, 17 aims have been defined, and objectives regarding the urban have been included in 5 of these, and 10 different strategic aims have been defined under the heading of strategy map of management of urban and social order.

The strategic plan of Ankara MM was 155 pages, and the word urban and concepts derived from the root urban have been included for 157 times, and the word environment and concepts derived from the root environment have been included for 19 times. 75 strategic aims have been determined in the plan, and among these aims the concept of urban has been included for 12 times, and the concept of environment has been included under only 8 strategic aims (preventing environmental pollution in Ankara). And the concepts of urban and environment have not been included in the vision and mission sections of the plan.

The strategic plan of Izmir MM was 227 pages, and the word urban and concepts derived from the root urban have been included for 655 times, and the word environment and concepts derived from the root environment have been included for 182 times. 9 strategic aims have been determined in the plan, and among these aims the concept of urban has been included for 13 times, and the concept of environment has been included for 1 time. The concept of urban has been included once in each of the mission and vision sections of the strategic plan of Izmir MM: Moreover, the vision of urban has been defined as “being a symbol urban regarding democracy where it is lived as free and with pleasure”.

The strategic plan of Bursa MM was 192 pages, and the word urban and concepts derived from the root urban have been included for 336 times, and the word environment and concepts derived from the root environment have been included for 160 times. 21 strategic aims have been determined in the plan, and among these aims the concept of urban has been included for 5 times, and the concept of environment has been included for 3 times. In the strategic plan mission of Bursa MM, the concept of urban has been included for 2 times, and the concept of environment has been included for 1 time. And in the vision of the plan, the concepts of urban and environment have not been included.

The strategic plan of Antalya MM was 104 pages, and the word urban and concepts derived from the root urban have been included for 173 times, and the word environment and concepts derived from the root environment have been included for 43 times. 17 strategic aims have been determined in the plan, and among these aims the concept of urban has been included for 7 times, and the concept of environment has been included for 1 time. In the strategic plan mission of Antalya MM, the concepts of urban and environment have not been included. And in the vision of the plan, the concept of urban has been included for 1 time, and the concept of environment has not been included.

The strategic plan of Adana MM was 110 pages, and the word urban and concepts derived from the root urban have been included for 394 times, and the word environment and concepts derived from the root environment have been included for 136 times. 8 strategic aims have been defined in the plan, and among these aims the concepts of urban and environment have been included for 3 times in each. And in the vision of the plan, the concept of urban has been included for 1 time, and the concept of environment has not been included. In the strategic plan mission of Adana MM, the concepts of urban and environment have not been included.

The strategic plan of Konya MM was 90 pages, and the word urban and concepts derived from the root urban have been included for 91 times, and the word environment and concepts derived from the root environment have been included for 125 times. 33 strategic aims have been determined in the plan, and among these aims the concept of urban has been included for 8 times, and the concept of environment has been included for 1 time. And the concept of urban has been included for 1 time in the vision and for 2 times in the mission, and the concept of environment has not been included in the mission of the urban.

The strategic plan of Gaziantep MM was 226 pages, and the word urban and concepts derived from the root urban have been included for 209 times, and the word environment and concepts derived from the root environment have been included for 226 times. 10 strategic aims have been determined in the plan, and among these aims the concept of urban has been included for 5 times, and the concept of environment has been included for 2 times. In the vision of the plan, the concept of urban has been included for 1 time, and the concepts of urban and environment have not been included in the mission.

The strategic plan of Şanlırfa MM was 49 pages, and the word urban and concepts derived from the root urban have been included for 42 times, and the word environment and concepts derived from the root environment have been included for 57 times. 3 strategic aims have been determined in the plan, and among these aims the concept of urban has been included for 1 time, and the concept of environment has not been included. In the mission of the plan, the concept of urban has been included for 1 time, and the concepts of urban and environment have not been included in the mission.

The strategic plan of Kocaeli MM was 90 pages, and the word urban and concepts derived from the root urban have been included for 37 times, and the word environment and concepts derived from the root environment have been included for 48 times. 4 strategic aims have been determined in the plan, and among these aims the concept of urban has been included for 4 times, and the concept of environment has been included for 2 times. The concept of environment has been included 1 time only in the mission of the plan, and the concepts of urban and environment has not been included in the vision.

The frequencies of availability of the concepts of urban and environment and words derived from the same (urban, urbanization, environmental, in the environment etc) in the strategic plans of metropolitan municipalities being the subject of research, and the values obtained by dividing these frequency values to page numbers of strategic plans are given in Table 4. According to this, Izmir, Adana and Bursa (655, 394 and 336 times) have included the concept of urban the most, and Izmir, Bursa and Adana (182, 160 and 136 times) have included the concept of environment the most. In the listing of usage amounts of the word urban and words derived from the root urban per page, Adana, Izmir and Bursa have ranked in the first three place with a word/paper number of 3.58, 2.89 and 1.75, and in the listing of usage amounts of the word environment and words derived from the root environment per page, Konya, Adana and Şanlıurfa have ranked in the first three place with a word/paper number of 3.58, 2.89 and 1.75.

Mission, vision and defined strategic aims consist the most important sections of strategic plans. The extent of inclusion of the concepts of urban and environment in these sections is an indicator of the importance attached on urban and environment by the relevant metropolitans. By this purpose, the mission, vision and strategic aims of the examined strategic plans have also been examined, and the obtained results have been listed in Table 5. According to this, in the mission of strategic plans Konya has included the concept of environment for 2 times, Kocaeli for 1 time, and in the vision of strategic plans Konya has included it for 2 times, Bursa and Şanliurfa for 1 time, and in the strategic aims of the same Gaziantep has included it for 5 times, Bursa for 3 times, Adana, Konya and Şanliurfa for 2 times, Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir for 1 time. And regarding the concept of urban, Konya has included it for 2 times in its mission, Konya and Bursa have included it for 2 times in its vision, Ankara and Kocaeli have not included it, and the other provinces have included it for 1 time in each. And in the strategic aims, Izmir has included the concept of urban for 12 times, Konya and Istanbul for 8 times.

The most important indicator of importance attached on urban and environment in the strategic plans of metropolitan municipalities is not only the concepts. How much budget is allocated by the management of municipalities to investments relevant to urban and environment is also very important. By this purpose, the environmental expenditures in the strategic plans of the period of 2015-2019 by the metropolitan municipalities for their urban and environment have been comparatively searched in respect of total amounts and amount per capita. Consequently, Istanbul, Gaziantep and Izmir have ranked in the first three place regarding total environment expenditures. And in the environment expenditures per capita, Gaziantep, Istanbul and Bursa have been the most successful cities by 1.200 TRY, 630 TRY and 328 TRY. And in respect of urban investments, Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir have ranked in the first three place in total amounts, and Istanbul, Izmir and Antalya have ranked in the first three place in the amounts per person (928 TRY, 772 TRY and 757 TRY) (Table 6).